Month of Mary

The Church in her wisdom, has dedicated the entire month of May, to Our Lady. This has come at such a crucial time for me. I am sad to admit, that in the past, I have often allowed this month to pass by without much thought about her. This month, I already find myself clinging to Mary.

I am completely embarrassed to admit this, but I have never had a strong devotion to the Rosary. I actually LOVE the Divine Mercy Chaplet instead. I will say the Rosary, but for whatever reason, I always felt somehow distanced from it. Since the beginning of this month, I have been making a concentrated effort to get back to the Rosary...and it has been amazing! I am not going to tell tales, and say that I am saying the whole Rosary everyday. No. I have found that I am out of practice in sitting still for a whole 15 minutes and mediating in silence. So, I have given myself more reasonable guidelines, and I am saying only a decade at night. I LOVE this! It is the perfect amount of time for me to give my full attention to the decade I am praying, without my mind wondering about the fifty-million things it has a tendency to drift off to. I hope that as my practice at silence and true mediation comes back, I will add decades back in.

Right now, I feel so close to Our Lady, and it has been such a long time since I felt that. I find myself thinking of her when I cook, when I reach for the babies (especially when I give comfort) and as I clean. I find myself seeking her advice on mothering, more than ever before.

I am praying that this month will be fruitful, not only for me, but for all of you lovely ladies as well! :)

Here are some of my favorite lines from Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, "The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air we Breathe."

Be thou then, O thou dear

Mother, my atmosphere;

My happier world, wherein

To wend and meet no sin;

Above me, round me, lie;

Fronting my forward eye;

With sweet and scarless sky;

Stir in my ears and speak there;

Of God's love, O live air;

Of patience, penance, prayer;

World-mothering air, air wild;

Wound with thee, in thee is led;

Fold home, fast fold thy child.

P.S. My big regret this May is that we do not own a statue of Our Lady. I truly hope by next year we will have one, so that we can set up a special place of honor for her.